“[Producer Tom] Catalano and [Peggy] Lee selected songs of current vintage, including two from Leon Russell. One of them, ‘Superstar,’ was already a huge Carpenters hit. Lee put a world-weary, lost-love twist on it and made it hers. She stamped her mature, worldly-wise brand on the then-modern songs, replacing youthful[…]
With her artist legacy series, pop/jazz vocalist and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway paid homage to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan on two critically acclaimed CDs while staying true to her artistic aesthetic. Callaway continues that series with Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration!, which highlights the songwriting talents of Lee, who wrote[…]
“In listening to Norma Deloris Egstrom now — hopefully with fresh, unbiased ears, and knowing that it represents a turning point in her career — it now more obviously belongs in another category altogether. In perspective, the album is part of a continuum with Frank Sinatra’s September of My Years[…]
“It is a stirring and remarkably melancholic album that gives voice to grief and isolation through Lee’s wrenching performances of ‘It Takes Too Long to Learn to Live Alone’ and ‘Superstar,’ at the time a recent hit for the Carpenters. Artie Butler’s arrangements are sublime, giving Lee’s anguish plenty of[…]
“The most enduring Peggy Lee Christmas recordings were, however, made for Capitol – most significantly for 1960’s Christmas Carousel: an inspired collection of covers and self-penned yuletide tunes arranged by Billy May (Frank Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Ella Fitzgerald) and produced by Woody Herman acolyte Dave Cavanaugh. Surely Lee’s ultimate[…]
“This CD isn’t only essential to fans but a fine introduction to an artist with class. If an aspiring female singer wonders about her own style she must start by studying Peggy Lee. Exciting without flamboyance, with a seductive tone that’s not vulgar. There’s a sassy intonation to her vocal[…]